My family is none too good about turning off lights. So I get to pay the electric bill AND climb ladders to replace them - hence, my desire to use CF lighting as much as possible in our remodeled bungalow.

Spent a ton of green going green at Home Depot- not the highest quality lighting, and it takes a minute to warm up and be bright, but dangit it works pretty good. So far so good.

Put the bulbs in the can lights in the basement, flip the switch, and my wife's lovely buckskin/mustard paint color turns pea green. "No WAY" says the wifey. I go back and buy 10 'bright white', daylight color bulbs, and try one - not *quite* as bad, but still pea greenish. I shuffle off dejectedly to the store, return 9 CFs, and buy 10 incandescents. Buckskin paint color looks normal.

But two weeks later TWO OF THEM ARE BURNED OUT ALREADY, and the basement is gonna be left on more than anywhere else!

So what do I need to look for to find a compact fluorescent PAR30 bulb that won't turn the walls green? Interestingly, the tube fluorescents in the mechanical room don't seem to have the same effect on a paint swatch, maybe *slightly* greenish but acceptable. That's where I got the 'daylight' idea for the PAR 30s, which failed.

I like the idea of reduced power consumption but I'm not a big fan of CF bulbs - especially for areas where you flip the light on and don't want to wait for the thing to warm up and get bright. Also many of my circuits at home have dimmers on them. Any dimmable CFs out there? Anyhow I mostly stick with incandescent except for things like the porch light. Don't buy the cheap incandescents, they burn out quick. The long life or shock rated bulbs will last much longer.

Bill, I get to look at this problem from a photographer standpoint. Incandescant lights don't give of the color blue. Flourescent (speling) don't give off the color red. Just the physics of the thing. We have to use flash or a blue filter for incandescants and then a red filter for florescants. So you have a color correction problem. They sell color corrected elements but they might not be in the configuration you may want.

Gotcha. So I need Fluorescents with red correction (if someone makes them that is). I do notice that *some* of the CFs I have (in a soft white, frosted glass package) don't do the greenish tinge, so they oughta be out there.

Regarding whether to go with CFs or not, appreciate the comments but that weren't the question, the commitment has been made. Lotsa lights in that house and I ain't payin' for the electric bill and replacement of incandescents if I can help it.

The incandescents that burned out already were not cheapies!!

Yep, CFs can be had cold cathode (dimmable). RE the wait to warm up thing, not really a problem. In the morning I have to wait for my eyes to warm up anywho, so it's a benefit!

Well, Cheeseman, you sent me down a very interesting and "illuminating" trail (as you often do...).

Based on your information, and especially keywords, I did some more searching. Found out a couple things.

One, is that don't believe the first guy you talk to on the customer service line. I almost went down a discouraging road.

More importantly, BuyLighting.com has a very knowledgeable staff guy manning the phone. I learned:
Light temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin (I knew that). 5100K is roughly equivalent to daylight, though not necessarily in color (I did not know that). It is referred to imprecisely as "bright white" or "full spectrum".

4100K is "cool white", again, any color.

Incandescents are abotu 2400K. So far, so good: CFs are available in about 2700K. Still, not accounting for color bias.

What determines red/green color bias is the phosphors. Green phosphors are used a lot, because they cause the wattage equivalency to be much higher for less money. Pink phosphors are not as efficient but have a warmer color bias.

It so happens the guy had the same problem and took home about a dozen different bulbs to try, and landed on the Microbright dimmable R30. Nice, but unfortunately at $23 a bulb, that ain't gonna happen. Besides, he thought it might be even TOO pink. His second choice was number FE-R30-15W-27K (forget the mfg. represented by FE, but Oh Well). Money back guarantee for 30 days, $7.95 each, so I ordered 10.

There you have it. Thanks, Cheeseman!!! You need to come by and see the shop in the new place when I get it put back together. I can do 2" more lift and get in the door!!!

How about just forcing everyone in the house to wear red "Natural Born Killers" glasses.

The scary part is, my younger might actually go for that...

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Or better yet, pass out night vision goggles at the front door and leave the lights out all the time. You save on bulbs and on ladder work!

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy... the master of cost efficiency.

I'm wondering about what kinda girl you got to marry you that she would go for that one... Though I am a mere shadow of my formerly good looking younger self, I would hope my bride would not require "lights out" to be with me in my home...